Epistemic racism in the brazilian northeastern “hinterland”: a genealogical approach to mental health

Abstract

This article presents epistemic racism in the “hinterland” of north-eastern Brazil in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It responds to two objectives: 1) to evidence this phenomenon applied to the territory; 2) to make visible epistemological personages and influences in the area of mental health, stimulating more studies. Using the genealogical approach, interdisciplinary bibliographic and documentary analysis, interlocutions with actors, intersectional and postcolonial analysis were conducted according to the interface between two paradigms of the period: racial/mestizaje and territory/ hinterland. It concludes that the racialization and subalternization found are associated to the political moment of national identity construction, being relevant the psychiatric theories, such as degeneration and eugenics, which also influenced psychology. Colonialities on messianism and nomadic banditry are demonstrated. It is suggested to amplify the term from scientific to epistemic, reviews of disciplines and global practices, in the direction of epistemic decolonization and Psychiatric Reform.